Heart of Ice
by PathOfThorns
Summary: Sam and Dean take on a hunt for a creature that moves through snow like water, snatching up victims and dragging them under the snow. The hunt turns out to be a lot more dangerous than they imagined. Hurt!Sam and Protective!Dean


**So I've had this story on my iPod for a while now. I jotted it down one day when I was really bored and thought that maybe I should post it here. So here it is  
>R&amp;R please!<br>Disclaimer: Don't own anything relating to Supernatural (besides my t-shirts)**

The window banged loudly as it flew open and closed repeatedly in the harsh winter wind. The temperature was bordering on the single digits, and to make matters worse, the heater in their current crap-hole motel room was broken.

Sam currently sat by his homemade fireplace, the crackling flames the only sound in the lonely room, as he read over the Latin exorcism his Dad wanted him to memorize.

Rumbling from outside alerted him to Dean's return, the Impala's headlights cutting through the small banging window to illuminate the room further before shutting off. Silence fell once again, and Sam could imagine Dean climbing from the car, cursing the snow as he made his way to the slightly warmer motel room.

Right on cue, the motel door flew open in a flurry of white snow, and Sam could hear his brother cursing loudly from the doorway as he struggled to get the door closed again. After several more muttered curses, Dean finally managed to wrestle the door shut, but not before another blast of subzero air blew into the room and further chilled its inhabitants.

The small fire flickered, dangerously close to blowing out, but eventually settled back once again. Sam heaved a relieved sigh, sure that if the fire went out he'd freeze to death in a matter of minutes.

Dean trudged sullenly over to where Sam sat on the couch, his wet boots squelching on the rug and a scowl pulling the corners of his mouth down.

"It's cold as fuck in here."

Sam rolled his eyes. "I'm aware."

"Well maybe you should do something about it then. I'm freezing." Dean said from behind him, his voice dangerously close to a whine.

"Yeah? And what do you propose I do about it, Dean? The damn heater is shot to Hell and I've been working my ass off for the past few hours just to get this going." Sam gestured towards the small crackling fire.

Dean stripped off his sodden jacket and tossed it over the edge of the couch. "Yeah, yeah. This is why I hate this town, Sam. Why can't we ever go somewhere like California? You know, hot weather. Hot chicks. My kinda place." Dean smirked, flopping down on the couch next to Sam and reaching for the TV remote.

"You know, Dean. I think you'd do better in school if you started thinking with your upstairs brain for once."

"Aw, little Sammy's just jealous that he doesn't get all the girls." Teased Dean as he flipped through the five channels the TV actually got, three of which were down due to the current snow storm outside.

"Shut up, Jerk" Sam growled, but there was no heat behind the words.

"Bitch." Dean replied like always, finally stopping on the one available news station.

A comfortable silence settled over them, something that never happened when their Dad was home, as Dean quietly watched the TV and Sam went over the exorcism for the umpteenth time.

"So, Dad called today." Dean informed after several minutes, breaking the silence.

Sam barely held back a groan of annoyance, instead asking, "Yeah? What did he say?" even though he already knew it wasn't going to be anything good.

"Said he wasn't gonna be back for at least three more weeks. The ghouls he was hunting got out of town before he had the chance to gank 'em. Now he's gotta start over again, so it's just gonna be you and me for a while, kiddo. Let's try not to kill each other, alright? I don't want you getting cabin fever and going all "The Shining" on my ass. I hear that boredom can do crazy things to seemingly normal people." Dean said, and Sam could hear the slight annoyance coloring his tone under the humor.

He knew Dean hated this town, hell Dean made it his job to remind him of that fact every day along with 'wash your hands, Sam', and 'Damn, that chick is hot'. This time he did voice his displeasure.

"Again? How come he always does this. Doesn't he know that you're just eighteen? You shouldn't have to be the parent all the time. It's not fair." He whined, not bothering to respond to Dean's attempt at changing the subject, and he instantly regretted it. Dad was a touchy subject with them.

Anger flashed through Dean's green eyes and you wouldn't have even known it was there if you didn't know Dean like Sam did. He cringed slightly, berating himself for saying anything. Dean's eyes met his then, and the anger instantly drained out of their depths.

"He tries his best, Sam. He does the best he can for us. I know it's hard at times, but I can take care you. Hell, I'm always taking care of you, Sammy. You know that." Dean ruffled Sam's hair playfully.

Swatting at the offending hand, Sam muttered, "Yeah, I do." '_Even if you shouldn't have to'_ went unsaid. "And thanks, Dean. For you know, taking care of me and stuff. I know it can be hard at times-"

"Whoa, man, straying into chick territory here. We're not gonna have to hug, are we? I might start growing lady parts." Interrupted Dean before Sam could continue, feigning horror.

Sam scowled and swiped at the back of his head, but missed when Dean stood up. "Gonna have to be faster than that, Sammy. I'm gonna go take a shower. Get this snow out of my hair. You keep studying that exorcism, geek boy." Dean quipped as he moved to grab clean clothes from the foot of his bed, making his way into the bathroom.

"It's Sam!" Sam managed to shout before Dean shut the door with a knowing smirk. "Jerk…" He muttered to the empty air, turning his attention back to the exorcism.

The TV was a comforting background noise as he continued to read over the Latin words. The voices coming from the screen eventually melted into a constant rumble of sound that melded with the sound of the running water like some sort of twisted melody.

Sam found his eyes closing against his will, the melding sounds serving to soothe him in a weird sort of way, but then his hunter trained ears picked up on the raised voices coming from the news station.

…_What appears to be animal tracks leaving the crime scene. Let's turn it over to Alex at the scene of the attack._

…_This is Alex, here at the Runwater Motel where just minutes earlier a young couple was attacked by what seems to have been a fairly large animal of some sort. The young woman, a Mrs. Tracie Tate, was found alive and has been successfully transported to the hospital. News on her condition has yet to come._

_Unfortunately her boyfriend, Mr. Josh Ross, was not as fortunate. He was found dead at the scene, what seems like small puncture wounds were found all over his body, but the cause of death has yet to be determined. Ms. Tracie Tate had the same strange marks too, but we'll wait and see how she fairs. The police have said that the puncture wounds are from a rare breed of snake. More information regarding the incident will be revealed at a later time. Until then, back to your usual broadcastings._

Sam's eyes were wide open now as he stared at the screen in disbelief. The reporter had said it happened only minutes earlier, but he had heard nothing, and neither had Dean. This was a small town, and the only motel in the whole area was the Runwater Motel, which was an ironic name seeing as it barely had_ any _running water.

Consequently, the Runwater Motel was where they were (sadly) staying, but neither Dean nor Sam had heard anything. Of course he could always attribute that to the snow storm currently wreaking havoc outside, but to not hear a creature killing someone in the same motel as them?

Even if Sam wasn't good enough to hear that, Dean definitely was, and since he didn't, that had to mean that it was a silent killer. In other words, no ordinary animal, which meant that there was a hunt in this town.

"Looks like we won't be too bored here after all, Sam." Dean's voice came from the bathroom doorway, excitement coloring his tone.

It didn't startle Sam, he had heard the shower shut off and he heard as his brother opened the shower door in time to catch the news report in its entirety.

"Looks that way." Sam sighed, less enthusiastic as Dean

The prospect of a hunt in this weather wasn't something that got his adrenaline racing like it did for his big brother. Sam could already see the prospect of the hunt lighting a fire in his green eyes.

His brother always had had a hunger for the hunt like their Dad, something that Sam couldn't seem to get on board with. There was just something about taking a life, even if the monster-of-the-week deserved it, which never truly appealed to Sam.

"You think Dad will let us take it by ourselves?" Dean came back into the room dressed in sweats and a T-shirt and went to sit on the bed he had claimed: the one nearest the door.

Sam turned around on the couch so that he was facing his brother, moving the exorcism book to a small table that was set up by the arm of the couch.

"I don't know, Dean. You know how he gets. He likes to be here in case something goes wrong. I'm not sure he'd be too happy to come back and find his sons mortally wounded or worse because they were stupid enough to take on a hunt alone. He'd blow his shit and you know it." Sam reasoned, subtly trying to talk Dean out of the idea.

"Well then how bout I call him just to make sure. I'll either kill myself, or the poor bastard who tries to bring us extra towels if I'm stuck here for three more weeks with nothing to do. I'll tell him that we can handle it. It's just some overgrown reptile, right? What could happen?" Dean said, standing to retrieve his phone from the table and moving back to his bed again, already dialing their Dad's number.

Sam silently seethed to himself. The window banged shut once more, and somehow it seemed final.

Hindsight's a bitch.

**So what do you think? Should I toss this one? If I do continue, the chapters will get longer until their at the usual 3000, this is just a kind of sample of course, just to see if you guys think it's worth continuing. Let me know what you think. ~ Thorn**


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